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Jan 08, 2018 00:00 IST

Too many feet wobble bridge

• The Millennium Bridge in London had to close for repairs when pedestrian traffic became too heavy, compromising the integrity of the structure. In a study, scientists suggested that wobbly bridges can be blamed on the interactions between moving crowds and the structure, which feed off each other. The report in Science Advances found that a crowd of as few as 165 people on a bridge could turn it wobbly.

Dolphins and FB

• Dolphins can be tracked with machine learning techniques - similar to the one that recommends new Facebook friends to you. The algorithm developed at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California, US, can analyse the recordings of millions of dolphin clicks gathered using underwater sensors. This could help scientists monitor the health of the sea mammals.

Beetroot red

• The red pigments in maple leaves, called anthocyanins, also light up cranberries and apples. But beets have evolved in another way. Their incandescent hue, called betalains, is totally different, reported a paper in New Phytologist. The special red in beets offers scientists clues to new painkillers.